The win was Kenseth's first since March 2004 at Las Vegas, and it came off his first pole start since May 2002 at Dover, Del.

Jeff Burton finished second, Greg Biffle third and Ricky Rudd fourth.

Kenseth led 415 of the 500 laps, in a race marred by 15 caution flags and predictably hot tempers.

Rusty Wallace, in his final start at Bristol, finished fifth. Honored in prerace ceremonies for his nine career victories here, the retiring Wallace gave the crowd of more than 160,000 a thrill through most of the second half of the race.

Wallace ran a strong second to Kenseth through the second half of the race and took the lead on Lap 422 by staying out while Kenseth and other front-runners pitted under the race's 14th caution.

But Wallace left himself a sitting duck on old tires for the restart with 86 laps left and lost the lead two laps later.

Four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon battled a loose-handling car to a sixth-place finish to keep his hopes alive for making the Chase for the Nextel Cup playoffs, despite a season that has turned sour since May. Gordon moved into 10th place in the standings.

The 12th caution, with 183 of the 500 laps left, had a shakeup effect on drivers fighting to make the top 10 in points--and the Chase.

Dale Jarrett, who came into the race 11th in the standings, clipped Ryan Newman, who arrived at Bristol eighth. Jarrett's move, in Turn 2, apparently was in retaliation for being bumped and spun by Newman earlier, in the same corner.

Both cars sustained major damage, and the melee collected Kevin Harvick, who had come in 14th in the standings, and knocked his car out of the race for more than 100 laps.

Crews made patch-up repairs on the Newman and Jarrett cars, and Jarrett was held an additional two laps by NASCAR officials as a penalty for rough driving.

Of the two bumps, "Mine was unintentional and his was intentional," Newman said. "I know he didn't expect me to turn him around, but I sure didn't expect him to retaliate like that."

Jimmie Johnson, who came into the race second in points to Tony Stewart, fell out of the race with a blown engine with only 85 laps remaining.

The first 68 laps went caution-free, a rarity for Bristol. But then a rash of three quick yellow flags brought things back to the frantic norm. And after that, the wrecks and spins kept on coming until there were nine cautions, equaling the total in last year's entire race, before the halfway point.

On Lap 69, Sterling Marlin scraped the wall in Turn 4 with a flat right-front tire to bring out the first yellow, and all the front-runners pitted. Until then, the race had been a parade led by Kenseth, with Gordon second and Biffle third.

Gordon exited the pits with the lead, even though his team had made major adjustments for handling problems,

The second caution followed immediately on the restart on Lap 75, when Hermie Sadler spun in Turn 4 and collected Casey Mears in the crash.

Next, Kasey Kahne spun after being tapped from behind by Harvick, and in that melee, Earnhardt's car sustained damage on the right front, forcing two extra pit stops.

Gordon maintained the lead through the second and third cautions, but on the restart on Lap 98, Kenseth moved back in front.

The Kenseth-Gordon-Biffle parade resumed until Lap 128, when Scott Wimmer spun on the backstretch to bring out the fourth caution and the second round of pit stops for the front-runners.

But even in and out of the pits again, the top of the running order remained the same--Kenseth, Gordon and Biffle--for the restart on Lap 135.

It stayed that way until Biffle passed Gordon for second place on Lap 163.